He turned away from the powerful What-Bee and swiped his sword gently back and forth through the air, watching the blade glimmer beneath the overhead lights. At least he’d come to understand that his power had two separate parts and that this half, which had functioned last night at the Superstitions, now seemed strong and right as he wielded his sword against Jean-Pierre in practice, as he folded, levitated, and worked with his dark mist floating around him.
But the streaming power remained elusive, perhaps even dormant, not a bad thing in his opinion.
With his sword held aloft, a vibration reached him, a single call to his dark power. He turned in a slow circle, listening hard, waiting for what he didn’t know.
“What is it?” Jean-Pierre asked.
“What is happening?” Samuel turned toward him. “Jesus, I can feel that something’s wrong, like a vibration in my head. What the hell is that?” But Jean-Pierre just shrugged.
“Perhaps it is your woman.” He was about to say no, to reject the idea because he didn’t have a woman, when Jean-Pierre’s phone rang. He plucked it from the deep pocket of his workout kilt, and after glancing a the screen, he thumbed then said, “Allo, Havily? Ca va? ” He nodded. “I see. When you call the landing platforms, have them fold her here. Oui. Ici. Here. Yes, we can do that for now.” He thumbed his phone, returned it to his pocket, and said, “Your woman is coming.”
“Shit,” Samuel murmured. He’d already planned on finding a way to avoid Vela, and now she’d be here in a few more seconds. Beyond that, he could feel her distress, which made no sense at all.
A moment later, she materialized twenty feet away from him, near the risers.
Unable to prevent himself, he crossed the workout mats on a half-run, folding his sword away at the same time.
With his dark power flowing in a mist around him he grabbed her arms, holding her fast. “Are you all right? What’s wrong? I can feel that something’s wrong.” But before she could answer, he pulled her against him.
“Samuel,” she whispered, her voice just a breath of air against his neck.
Realizing what he’d done, he let go of her, then took a step back. “Shit, I’m so sorry, Vela. I didn’t mean to do that. I’m trying. I really am.” Vela put a hand on his arm, and he grew very still. God, the feel of her fingers alone making contact with his skin sent ripples of desire coursing through him.
“Samuel, we have a situation. I found Duncan.”
“What?”
“I located Duncan. I slipped into the darkening and went straight to him.” He called to Jean-Pierre, repeating what she’d just told him.
Jean-Pierre hurried to join them, which immediately set a new kind of problem in play. He didn’t want the warrior near Vela. He shifted to stand slightly in front of her, lowered his chin, and glared. A soft warning growl sounded at the back of his throat.
Jean-Pierre raised both hands, and took two steps back but his lips curved.
Damn the breh-hedden.
Perhaps more stiffly than he wanted, Samuel shifted to stand beside Vela and slid an arm around her waist. He met her gaze, then sent, I’m sorry. This thing is almost unbearable, but I can’t let him get any closer. Please understand.
I do. I really do. Her light floral scent, so familiar, began to waft over him and now a second problem surfaced.
Oh, God, the way you smell.
I know. This is crazy. Your touch, your nearness, and right now you smell like heaven.
But at that, he laughed and some of the tension eased out of him. He shifted to face her a little bit more. “How is that possible, when I’ve been running drills?” Her large blue eyes had darkened and the initial charge of the breh-hedden rushed back at him. The only thing that kept him from dragging her into his arms once more was that Jean-Pierre stood nearby.
When the brother called out his name in three distinct syllables, Samuel jerked his gaze from Vela.
“Your woman had a purpose in coming here, remember?”
“Oh, God, yes,” Vela said. “It’s about Duncan.” She shuddered. “I found him in the darkening, in a series of tunnels that crossed the dimensional trough into Third. He’s in a stone-like facility, bound with ropes. He’s been beaten. I almost didn’t recognize him.” She paled, her eyes widening. “He has some kind of execution order on his head. He said he won’t last through the next couple of days.” She then relayed what Duncan had said, that he believed Samuel would be able to help him, that he’d seen others on Third with his power, others that released a kind of mist when their power emerged.
A series of thoughts raced through his head, that his power possessed Third Earth qualities, just as he had thought, that a Third entity held Duncan captive, and that somehow Vela connected him to the Upper Dimension.
Whatever he’d felt earlier about staying away from Vela, or his reluctance to bring his dark power forward, all seemed to fall away in the face of Duncan’s situation. Maybe if this hadn’t been a time of war, he could make a different choice, one that could allow him to separate from Vela, to keep his unknown, untried powers at bay. But Duncan had saved his life and right now Samuel had only one goal. “We need to get him out.” And with those words, spoken aloud, he left behind a much simpler life in which he kept to himself and lived out his basic, disconnected warrior life. He didn’t know all that taking this step would mean, but everything in his spirit urged him forward.
“I just don’t know what to do,” Vela said.
“Can you share the location with me in some way? Maybe get me there?” He had no idea if Vela could take him through the tunnel system she’d just described.
“I don’t know.”
Vela looked into smoky-gray eyes and once again felt the train of her thoughts begin to slide away. She was still too vulnerable to the breh-hedden to do much more than step in his direction and plant a hand on his weapons harness, in the center of his chest. He covered that hand and his expression softened. A falling sensation flowed through her, working the hard exterior of her heart, softening what had been closed off for the last several years.
You’re so beautiful.
But his deep voice in her head woke her up. He shouldn’t be saying something like that, not when they had a job to do, not when Duncan was in danger.
She drew back, shivering as she lost connection with him. She looked at anything but him and decided the black mats were the right place for her gaze to land. Her thoughts slowly pulled back together.